Monday, May 17, 2010

The 10,000 square mile oil slick that NOAA, BP, and the media are underestimating and under reporting looks to be in the Gulf Loop Current as reported by Sky Truth today (see image).

Major media coverage of this ongoing eco disaster has pegged leaking oil at a paltry 5000 barrels a day. Sky Truth was one of the first non governmental organizations to estimate the oil flow at 26,500 barrels a day.

As of this morning Sky Truth was the only source to suggest that leaking oil and 700,000 gallons of COREXIT, a toxic dispersant, is now in the Loop Current headed towards Florida and the East coast of the USA.

Peter Thomas has the scoop on a rare Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) caught by gill netters off the coast of Baja last week.

The last recorded Basking shark in Mexico was in 2003 creating quite a stir within the shark research community.

We contacted Dr. Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki of the Laboratorio de Ecología PesqueraDepartamento de Oceanografía Biológica CICESE and he confirmed, "technicians are taking measurements and details of this animal."

Peter Thomas Blog

Now comes word of a giant basking shark killed, presumably, in the same manner just north of Ensenada off Rosarito Beach.The gruesome photo is courtesy of Cesar Rivera, who shared what little information he had with 976-TUNA. Rivera estimated the basking shark to measure 26 feet, making it a full-sized adult.

Basking sharks, which are filter-feeding plankton-eaters, were once hunted globally for their fins, oil, meat and vitamin-rich livers, and they're classified as either vulnerable or endangered, depending on the region.